


Eye of the Beholder

by greyvvardenfell



Series: ZevWarden Week 2020 [1]
Category: Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M, Implied Sexual Content, god ao3 does not like nb ships, reyja is nb not female
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:47:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25022632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greyvvardenfell/pseuds/greyvvardenfell
Summary: Reydis and her companions stop to camp in their search for Witherfang.
Relationships: Zevran Arainai/Brosca
Series: ZevWarden Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811920
Comments: 8
Kudos: 5
Collections: ZevWarden Week 2020





	Eye of the Beholder

**Author's Note:**

> Written for ZevWarden Week 2020: Day 1

Trees and trees and trees. Reydis had never seen so much green. The leaves called out to be touched whenever she passed yet plant life under her fingers still felt foreign, strange in its softness. They’d been wending through this forest for days, watched by inhuman eyes in the shadows, chasing Witherfang as a dog chases its tail.

Or perhaps a wolf.

“Let’s stop here,” she suggested, catching sight of the evening sky through the boughs of a gnarled elm. “I think I can hear a stream just over that rise.”

Amgarrak yelped an affirmative. The mabari had led them faithfully, tirelessly, from scent to scent since the group returned to the woods after reporting Danyla’s death. If anything, he seemed the only one pleased to still be wandering the wilderness.

“Ugh. S'pose you’re right.” Alistair popped his neck and stifled a yawn. “A bath sounds nice, though I’m convinced I’m never going to get all the twigs out of my armor after this.”

“Always on the cutting edge of fashion.”

“Ha! Don’t give me any more horrible ideas. I come up with enough of those on my own.”

Reydis grinned. Behind her, Zevran chuckled as he slid his hands around her waist. He squeezed gently, holding her to his chest, and graced her branded cheek with a light kiss. “A bath does indeed sound pleasant, does it not? I hope the stream is wide enough for two.”

How long had it been since the walls between them fell? Reydis couldn’t say anymore. Every day beneath these tangled branches felt the same. But she wasn't complaining: to have him touch her, want her, openly and without shame… she would take years of aimless stumbling through giant, haunted trees as long as he was there too.

And yet the prospect of such an intimate domesticity as a bath, with all of her bared to his eager eyes, made her stomach clench. Surely a lean, handsome man like him would want nothing to do with her after a thorough inspection like that. She tamped down the feeling, burying it with the rest of her misgivings. Zevran had never even hinted at disgust when her body squished under his hands.

Alistair stood on his toes to search for the stream, his face lighting up when it made itself known just beyond a gentle slope of bare grass. He slung his pack to the ground and made to remove his splintmail cuirass, but Zevran interrupted him with a sultry chuckle.

“Oh, my friend Alistair, you would not deny your fellow Warden the opportunity to rinse the forest’s touch from her skin first, would you?” He smiled at Reydis and stroked the tired crescent beneath ones of her eyes with his thumb. “Chain of command and all that, yes?”

Alistair groaned.

For a moment, Reydis took pause. The brook’s playful babbling beckoned, but Alistair had earned the right to avail himself of its clean waters just as much as she had. Zev too, though if he had his way, she knew, and judging by the hunger in his golden eyes as he admired her, whatever he had in mind for the two of them beyond bathing might take awhile.

“Go ahead, Alistair. We’ll get camp set up.”

“You’re the best!”

As quickly as he’d faded, he brightened, bounding off over the small hill already working the clasps of his splintmail again. Reydis watched him go with the smallest frown creasing her brow, struck by his seemingly boundless energy. He was young, inexperienced, with so much of his childhood stolen from him. Yet he carried the weight of expectation, the burden of their mission, with such ease. Though she had only a handful of years on him, she felt closer to the ancient trees standing sentinel around the clearing.

“What troubles you, my dear?”

Zevran’s smooth murmur startled her out of her pensiveness. She smiled wryly, avoiding his gaze. “Just thinking.”

“About?”

“Life, I guess. Circumstance.”

“Hmm.” He reached out to remove her pack from her shoulders. “Heavy thoughts to bear with all the rest of your supplies.”

She couldn’t help but grimace. “Maybe. I’ve gotten used to it, though.”

“All the more reason to share its weight now.”

Those talented hands cupped her face, lifting her into a deep kiss. Reydis gasped to feel the warmth of Zevran’s tongue, taste his sweet breath. He worked magic on her, whether he set out to or not. Desire made flesh.

He pulled away after an infinite moment to touch her casteless brand. “It has been many months since I got to see you fully. Our journey to Andraste’s ashes, or whatever was in that magnificent vase, seems a lifetime away.”

Reydis blushed, remembering the heat of the divine flames on her naked skin as she stripped off her armor and clothing. Zevran’s gracious assistance, too, turned her pink beneath his calloused fingers. Before she could speak, he sighed in appreciation.

“Ah, what a sight you were. Far better than the mountains and those endless ruins. Had I the sense the Maker gave a stone, I would have done wicked, wicked things with you.”

“Zev!”

“I speak only the truth. I will not deny what was on my mind. Did you believe me so unaffected, that I could approach you without a single thought of what I might find beneath all that steel?”

She laughed nervously. “You’re not nearly as innocent as you’re making yourself look.”

“I never claimed innocence. Only interest.”

“Interest,” Reydis repeated cautiously, as though she couldn't understand how or why he embraced such an abnormal response.

Zevran kissed her again. “Mm. Believe me, I am still very interested. To see you as you are…" He trailed off. "Armor has its place, and you wear it well. But beneath? What loveliness you bring to this bitter world, my dear.”

For the first time she could remember, she believed him.


End file.
